The notion of ambivalence has become an indispensable factor in the present, especially in the construction of gender roles. The strategic erasure of binaries is one constituent aspect of ambivalence. Moreover, it has become an “intricate part of human existence” and also an “effective compass” in analysing the complexities involved in human behavioural production (Harreveld, 2015, p. 3; Mazzetti, 2019, p.193). Using the frameworks of feminism, which “foregrounds ambivalence as a necessary way of viewing the world”, my presentation proposes to analyse the nuances around the constructs of biological sex based gender schema (Giritli Nygren et al., 2020, p. 14). Irrespective of portraying and problematizing the notion of “sexism”, the problems arising due to sex-based gender roles are still prevalent. The mutation of sexism into several forms, including “subtle”, “covert” or “benevolent” sexism, demands critical scrutiny as they are often naturalized and camouflaged in cultural practices. Feminist critics in India, for instance, have cited benevolent and subtle patriarchies as the means of amplifying and circulating patriarchy in India. So, a study involving a fusion of the concepts of “ambivalence” and “sexism”, as coined by the socio-psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick as “ambivalent sexism” will be employed in my research to examine the nuances of patriarchies and gender practices through the works of contemporary Tamil women writers. In doing so, the works of five authors cutting across various caste backgrounds are selected as primary authors in the present study. Besides attempting to engage in a close reading of the texts through the framework of “ambivalent sexism”, the concerns of each author are addressed by employing specific theories of gender.
Reference
Giritli Nygren, K., Olofsson, A., & Ohman, S. (2020). A framework of intersectional risk theory in the age of ambivalence. Palgrave Macmillan.
Mazzetti, M. (2019). In Praise of Ambivalence. Transactional Analysis Journal, 49(3), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/03621537.2019.1602402
Van Harreveld, F., Nohlen, H. U., & Schneider, I. K. (2015). The ABC of ambivalence: Affective, behavioral, and cognitive consequences of attitudinal conflict. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 52, pp. 285-324). Academic Press.